Review Blog

Aug 21 2015

The Beloved by Alison Rattle

Hot Key Books, 2015. ISBN 9781471403798
(Age: Mature senior secondary) Themes: Role of women in society
(1800's); Abuse - emotional and sexual; Historical drama; Family
drama. Set in 1848, this is a tale of family abuse, powerlessness,
betrayal, exploitation and family dysfunction threaded with a link
to religious abuse, heresy and corruption. Alice Angel, lives in a
household dominated by a manipulative mother who emotionally abuses
her daughter. Alice's responses to the abuse and the perceived lack
of love from her mother, which from the reader's 21st Century
viewpoint seem reasonable, are deemed to be evidence of her mental
instability and she is at risk of being sent to a mental asylum.
This uncertainty leads Alice to escape into an uncertain future, and
then into the unfortunate arms of an in itinerant preacher who
manages to convince her, and many other women, that he is their
Saviour - The Beloved. The servitude that follows is spiritual
abuse, and yet the vulnerable women from rich and poor backgrounds
succumb to the seductive charms of the enigmatic leader willingly.
Gradually Alice discovers that all is not what it seems, and the
abuse is revealed in all its horrors.
This is a sad tale and reveals how a woman's position in the world
was often easily manipulated in the 19th Century. The willingness of
the women in the tale to succumb to the spell of the charismatic
religious leader, who deceptively claims divinity, was immensely
sad. The fact that this is based on a piece of English history
(Agapemonites) is disturbing.
Some maturity is required to read this book, both as the result of
the descriptions of abuse (including sexual abuse), but also to sift
through the irreverence and false claims of the religious leader.
(Note: Christians will find the warped and corrupt expression of
their beliefs to be distressing but not surprising, as it still
continues today.)
Carolyn Hull